In for a Penny - Ransom Drysdale

Part 9

Word Count: 1290

Part Warnings: Murder, Gaslighting (Just in case)

"You're scared of me? Oh God, I've scared you. Lottie, look at me, look at me Kitten. Please." He put his hand on my jaw and slowly lifted his head up to make me look at him. "I love you Charlotte; I would never hurt you." I could see fear in his eyes.

I nodded at him. "You can leave if you like Lottie. Please, just don't hate me. Dislike me as much as you want, but don't hate me."

"No."

"No?"

"No" I confirmed. "I'm not going to leave you. In for a penny, in for a pound. You've come this far, right?" I felt him move. He still had his arms wrapped around me for dear life. "I said I would help Marta when I thought she killed Harlan and there is nothing stopping me from helping you. You are way more important to me than Marta is Ran." I heard him let out a breath in relief.

"But I take it you still have the tox report." He nodded his head. "Okay, so you need to find out who sent the tox report, they probably still have a copy, and you can't risk that Marta won't let the guilt consume her and tell all. Take the rendezvous time off of the paper and send it to Marta. Then send an anonymous email to her with a later time."

"I set alight to the examiner's office." Ransom confessed to me. "That way any evidence there would be destroyed."

"Good. Good okay so send the note to Marta tonight and come back here. Then we are going to go to meet with whoever sent the note tomorrow. We will have to destroy all the evidence and then that's that. If they don't have a toxicology report for evidence then you can't be linked to it."

"Are we going to just allow Harlan's death to be a suicide?"

"Ran, let's be honest. You wouldn't be getting a different amount of money either way. Marta already said that if we helped her she would give you your cut of the inheritance. Let's just try not to get you arrested first." He silently agreed with me. He got up and gave me a kiss before making his way out of the bedroom to go and send the note to Marta. I laid in bed, thinking over everything, making sure that there was nothing me and Ransom missed that could point to him.

Apparently I drifted off to sleep because the next thing I knew, Ransom was gently hushing me as he climbed in bed next to me. I felt him wrap his arms around me and I automatically relaxed into his touch. I drifted back off to sleep with the worry that now anything could happen.

*

In the morning, me and Ransom got up and we went to go meet the person who sent him the blackmail note. When we arrived, I saw Ransom place gloves on.

"If I kill her, will you hate me?" Ransom almost whispered.

"I'd prefer if you didn't, but no. I won't hate you." I could feel the nervousness dripping off of him. I wanted to reach and comfort him but the emotions I was feeling were so intense I didn't want to burst into tears.

We both got out of the car and went through to where we had to meet the person. I was in shock when I saw Fran. She hadn't seen me yet as I was still behind Ransom.

"I knew it. I knew you were a no-good son of a bitch; I knew Harlan wouldn't have just killed himself." She paused for a minute, and I took a step from out behind Ransom. "Wait, Charlotte? You were in on this?"

"Yes, you were right Fran." Ransom smirked.

"I knew you were guilty as shit. Now you're gonna pay for it don't come near me I'm warning you I..."

Ransom didn't give her time to finish. He made his way towards her, and I turned my back. I could tell from the tone of Fran's voice that if Ransom didn't kill her, she would turn him in.

I turned back around when I heard silence. I saw Fran on the floor unconscious and Ransom going through the medical bag. I took a deep breath and made my way over to the tox report. I noticed on it that Marta had indeed given Harlan the right drugs and that Harlan would still be alive if Marta knew the truth. Ransom handed me a lighter after he took a syringe and morphine out of the bag. As he got to work with killing Fran, I set alight to the toxicology report and let it burn next to Marta's medical bag.

We quickly went home and hoped that we would be hearing from Marta soon. We knew that when she found the blackmail note she would probably come to me and Ransom for help. We were sitting in our living room when I suddenly had a thought.

"What if Fran had more than one copy of the tox report?" I asked Ransom. He looked up at me deep in thought.

"Do you know where she would have hidden it." He questioned me. I thought about it for a minute. It didn't take me long to figure out where it was.

"Fran's stash." I told him. "I know where it is. I'll go destroy it." Before I had a chance to go through the doorbell went. I walked to the door and found a terrified Marta standing there.

"Come in, quickly." I pulled her in and pointed to the living room where Ransom was. "Go sit down I'll make you some tea." Marta made her way through, and I went to the kitchen. After I made Marta a tea and Ransom a coffee, I went back to the living room and sat on the arm of the couch, next to Ransom.

"Well, I don't know what this is from" Ransom muttered, not taking his eyes of the note.

"It's my medical bag tag. They have my medical bag. For some reason." Marta explained, fear prominent in her voice.

"OK, but this is just a photocopy of the header of a blood toxicology report, from the local crime lab. On Harlan. Marta, it would show the morphine overdose."

"So, I'm screwed! How do you know all this stuff?" Marta started freaking out. I saw how Ransom kept his calm demeanour throughout.

"I was Harlan's research assistant. For a summer." Ransom paused as he took a sip of coffee. "But what kind of blackmail scheme is this? I mean the actual evidence is sitting up the street at the crime lab. What was the point of sending you this?"

I had to control my urge to smirk. I knew that Ransom was bullshitting her, and she was falling for it hook, line and sinker.

"Okay, me and you are going to go to the lab and see if we can get that tox report. Then we are going to find out who is blackmailing you." Marta nodded in agreement. I stood up and gave Ransom a hug and kiss and told him to 'be careful.' I knew I would have a more difficult job getting into the mansion to retrieve the tox report, if it was even there.

Once Ransom and Marta left, I grabbed a bracelet of mine and put it in my pocket. I knew the police were still snooping around and I didn't want them questioning why I was there. With me 'forgetting' my bracelet in case anyone asked, I left the house and made my way to Harlan's to look for the tox report.